Jealousy that goes unnoticed or ignored can escalate into toxic behavior that can transform your friend so drastically, you might not even recognize them anymore. The issue here is that most people hide these feelings deep inside, and it’s hard for us to tell if they’re jealous of us or not. Thankfully, there are a few ways to tell if your friend is harboring negative feelings about you.
A jealous friend can easily bring you down, and we want you to see the signs before things start to go sideways.
1. Fake Praise
A jealous person will not have any problems giving you compliments, but once you leave their sight, they will turn their back on you and put you down to their peers. They probably do not like confrontation, so they will never tell you to their face that they are jealous, instead, they will pretend like they are proud of you. So just keep your ears open!
2. They gloat at your mistakes.
Even if it’s one mistake that you made a long time ago, or you’ve just faced a loss, your jealous friend will be the first one to tell you, “I told you so.” They might feel happy and satisfied when you experience failure. Any person who takes pleasure in other’s failure is not a person you want to stick with.
3. They gossip about you.
Sometimes, even your friend won’t realize that they’re jealous of you. It will most likely start with a feeling of “dislike,” especially if you achieve something that they always wanted for themselves. So you might start hearing from other people that your “friend” is spreading not-so-good news about you. They enjoy putting you down in front of others so that they seem better than you.
If you decide to confront your friend about it, they’ll probably have an excuse, like saying you’ve become “different” or “arrogant.”
4. They diminish your achievements.
A jealous friend will most likely feel bad about themselves so they’ll downgrade your achievements. If you have good news, they might start looking for something negative to say to make you feel like you didn’t deserve it. Something like, “Don’t celebrate just yet, we still have a few more exams until the end of the year.”
There is another way a jealous friend can decrease the importance of your success. They might comment on something while putting emphasis on the fact that they have more than you. For example, they might say, “Once, I had the highest score for a much harder subject than this one.”
5. Brag About Their Success
They are the total opposite once they achieve any success. They will do everything in their power to flaunt their success, especially while you are celebrating yours. The reason behind it is that they get a sense that you are more important than they are, so they have to try and keep up.
6. They Imitate You
Take it as a sign of flattery, someone who is jealous of you will often try and do everything you do. They will walk the same way you do, try and dress the same way, they may even go as far as trying to talk the same way as well. This could get annoying at times, but the best thing to do is accept it. They obviously think that the way you go about your life is a successful way, so embrace it.
7. They’re Happy When You Fail
Because they hate when you have success, it is only natural that jealous people will be thrilled to watch you fail at something. They will never say it to your face, but deep inside they are enjoying it. In my opinion, it doesn’t make much sense. If you are trying to replicate someone so you can have the same success as them, wouldn’t you be disappointed when they fail, since what you are essentially copying didn’t work?
References: brightside.me, funnystation.net
